Before planting we carefully prepare the soil for the plants. This means “opening” up the soil and loosening the structure a bit, in order for the young vines to easier develop their roots, and go deep from the very beginning. We do this work as carefully as possible not to disturb nature’s balance, the life and biodiversity in the soil too much.
We then plant the first part of our vines, the rootstock. We let these grow deep and strong for a year before grafting the variety chosen onto them in situ. It’s a bit like building a house! First you build a strong fundament, then the house itself.
We use low yielding clones for all grape varieties to guarantee a balanced and healthy growth of the vines and a naturally optimal amount of grapes. By letting the plant itself limiting the amount of grapes it carries, the quality of these is naturally higher and the balance between physical and phenolic ripeness ideal and they follow each other through the ripening period.
All our vines, except for the Syrah is planted on Richter 110 rootstock as this is best adapted to our soil types, and again provide less vigorous and more balanced growth. The Syrah was grafted on B41 as it regulates vigour perfectly for this variety inducing rapid flowering, and providing evenly ripened fruit.